The Goddess
by Hearts of Paper
Summary: As Madara makes the final preparations to secure his victory and enthral the world in an eternal illusion, a mysterious figure with all new and even more mysterious powers reappears and threatens to foil his plans.
1. The Return

The battleground was a wasteland. The thick clouds that engulfed the night sky seemed to circle around the bright full moon. Black pillars of smoke rose from deep fissures in the ground created in the wake of the war. Bodies of the dead and dying swarmed before the God-Tree that towered up beneath the moon. Having eradicated the Shinobi Alliance that rose against him, Madara Uchiha prepared to activate the Eternal Tsukuyomi. The army of the Shinobi Alliance and their five Kages has proven a decent warm up for him while he resurrected himself. Utilising the destructive power of the Ten-Tails and watching the further destruction was entertainment to him, especially when the previous Hokages were brought into the fray. He revelled in seeing them scurry about before his almighty power and was glad his nemesis, the first Hokage Hashirama Senju, made an appearance by means of Edo Tensei. Later into the battle, the Uchiha bore witness to a truly rare sight; the release of the eighth gate. The ninja that used it was some Konoha ninja, though Madara never cared to catch his name as he achieved nothing. Even the reincarnations of the Sage of Six Paths children only challenged him slightly. It was almost boring. Naruto Uzumaki, the reincarnation of Ashura, who boasted the chakra of the nine tailed beasts, clawed at the ground to drag himself forward as life left his body. The reincarnation of Indra, the famed last remaining Uchiha, Sasuke, seemed to have passed out or perhaps had already met his death. Having re-obtained his 'borrowed' eye from his former ally, though puppet was a more appropriate term for Obito Uchiha, nothing of value remained in this world except to execute his plan. He was content with the battle but only wished that it could have lasted longer, or that another worthy fighter would appear.

"Is that all this entire world has to offer?!" He spat in disgust to the bodies around him. "Not even the spirits of the Sage's children could overcome me! You are all nothing, worthy of only serving me for all eternity in a never-ending nightmare. I hold the power of Kaguya a million times over!"

The world was desolate, colourless and entirely silent. The Earth had been stained by darkened blood and the sky matched its bleakness, though something small and white passed his eyes in a split second. Initially slightly stunned, Madara turned to investigate yet found nothing. After a few seconds another white object darted past him yet he could not find it again. A second passed before the next one and before he was fully aware of what was going on, he was surrounded by a sea of swirling white. Through the gaps in the vortex he saw a figure manifest from the white. The white slowly turned black which seemed to blend in with the environment though the red clouds that patterned the cloak were unmistakable. Long, slender legs brought the figure forward until a face came into view. The piercing grey eyes of the girl met Madara's own eyes as she approached the tornado of paper. A light blue origami flower formed in the right of her blue hair as Madara smirked.

"Konan, of all the fodder that would remain I had never expected you to be here."

Upon finishing his sentence Madara realised the abnormality. The dead coming back was no strange occurrence yet who could have brought back a body that was lost at the depths of the ocean? Furthermore her skin remained flawless as though she were alive, and her eyes were not dark like the other reanimates. It made no difference to the invincible Uchiha though. She was merely another corpse. He knew she infused the paper with her chakra to control them. Such ninjutsu, in fact all ninjutsu for the matter, was rendered useless against the Preta path. He reached forward while laughing to stop the technique using the powers gained from his Rinnegan, though it was to no avail. Displaying no emotion, Konan closed her fist in front of Madara, resulting in the paper closing in around him. Glancing up he realised she had already closed off his escape with squares of paper that were falling. The paper tore into his flesh like tiny blades. Madara did not even grimace at the pain. The shards flew away as Konan opened her fist once more. Madara's powers of regeneration gained from Hashirama's cells immediately began to repair the gouges in his flesh. His smirk turned into a twisted grin as he prepared for battle once again.

"Whatever trick you used will fall short very soon. I just hope you can get my blood pumping until I tear you apart." His eyes grew wide as he leaned forward to scream and laugh. "Like paper."

"A million times the power of Kaguya you claim?" The paper that floated in the air separated into two groups behind Konan and slowly formed grand, beautiful wings as her grey eyes faded to pure white.


	2. A Glimpse of Power

The world revolved around the final two warriors. Everything else stood perfectly still but the atmosphere was tense, as if anticipating an earth-shattering battle. Madara noted the change in Konan's eyes, and the consequent change in her chakra. Lowering his stance he remembered the last time he had laid eyes on her. She was only a child when he transplanted his own horrifically powerful eyes into her friend. The innocence that once shone in the young girl had been replaced by a solid cold resolve. Such was the fate of children in a world of war. He ran his hand slowly up his neck and face, until he pulled back his eyelids with his middle and ring finger and smiled.

"Do you recognise these eyes? They were his eyes. Given to… no. He was blessed with them by me. His eyes, his power, his Akatsuki, his plans, even his death, everything he was is because of me!" Konan closed her eyes as the corners of her mouth twisted slightly. She began to rise through the air as paper fluttered all about her. The Uchiha had little care for any move she might make. He raised an open hand out to her. "He lives on in these eyes. In me. He died striving for the peace that I can and will create! Join me Konan and together we can create the world Nagato envisioned." Madara's voice grew sincere before he stopped for her response. The girl opened her eyes. A solitary tear fell down her left cheek.

"K-Konan…" She jerked her head around at the sound of the familiar voice. A young blonde lay face down in the dirt struggling to keep his eyes open. She barely recognised him now due to the physical changes in his appearance, and the immense power difference in his chakra though it still held a familiar warmth. He reached forward toward her with his right hand but could not hold it up for long as his right eye shut as well. "I thought when I saw an angel… I was…" His left eye joined his right in closing before they both wearily half opened again. "No… no. It's you. Please." His eyes shut once more and did not open, but Konan could detect a small flicker of chakra within his body, so Naruto was not dead. Yet. The angel turned back to Madara.

"Madara. You tamper with powers far beyond your comprehension and have been consumed by their darkness. I will not allow you to plummet further into the abyss, or have you drag this world with you! I beg of you, stop th-" Madara's erratic laughter cut Konan off. He doubled over in his hilarity which slightly irked her. Despite this, she patiently waited for him to calm down and consider her opportunity of mercy. Throwing his arms to each side he screamed at her;

"You truly are pathetic. Here I thought you could have been something special but deep down you're just another one of them: nothing. Obito killed you with only the powers of the Sharingan. I see no need to vex myself going beyond that if that's all it takes to be rid of you."

Konan noticed Madara's clone in limbo fleeing at great speed. She figured he must be planning some large scale attack that could threaten his own body as well as hers. She believed that his pride would obligate him to stick to his words and use only his Sharingan powers, though she was reluctant to bet on it. Her eyes were then drawn down as it was swallowed up by darkness. The realisation dawned on her as she looked up in dread. A huge meteor cut straight through the clouds directly above Konan. Sighing, she raised one hand toward the falling mass and muttered:

"Begone darkness."

The rock continued to descend at an alarming pace until it fully engulfed Konan in its dark embrace. Madara stopped laughing and watched intently. His enemy did not move, neither did any of her paper or chakra. She displayed no intention of escape, though such hopes were idiotic against such raw power. She remained steadfast in the face of what was certain death. So what is her plan, or what persisted in the back of his mind, what is her power?

Madara's eyes widened as his eyes picked up on her chakra spreading up through the meteor. What should have crushed the ant appeared to stop the moment it touched her fingertips. Instead, paper seemed to be peeling off from the bottom where Konan had touched. It started at the surface where it shed hundreds of sheets of paper a second while working its way up. Hundreds became thousands as the dispersion reached the core of the meteor and it was reduced to a hemisphere of rock being dissolved into paper. The sight grew pitiful as the remnants of the once huge meteor were turned into sheets of paper. It was at that moment that Madara caught of a glimpse of the true capacity of Konan's new power. Unafraid, the smallest signs of a smile appeared on his face. Through the gap created in the clouds, the light of the moon shone down over Konan, creating the silhouette of an angel.

"Perhaps this could be interesting after all." Madara rose in the air slowly. Blue flames appeared before him and enveloped him. These flames danced around him and took the form of his demonic looking perfect Susano'o. It towered at a mountainous height, almost rivalling the God Tree itself, with blades that were comprised entirely of the deadly blue flames. Acknowledging the monster that was summoned before her, Konan brought her hand forward toward Madara. As the meteor dwindled to nothing, millions of sheets of paper floated around Konan.

"Sacred Paper Goddess!" Konan's words echoed around the calm world before the rustling of flying paper drowned them out. Madara struggled to follow the vast amount of paper and decipher its movements, though he confirmed that it was building something behind her. Something equally giant as his own Susano'o. Sheets of paper joined and smoothed over to form a long, flowing kimono over what became a body. Two large horns sprouted from the top of figure. The Uchiha had an idea, which almost verged on a worry, of what the paper construct may be. As two white eyes and a third red eye, situated on the forehead, opened Madara's worry became a reality.

"K-Kaguya?!" He shouted out to Konan as a smirk formed upon her cheeks.


	3. Resilience

It was difficult to tell exactly when the paper moved, but as the swords of Madara's Susano'o swung for the paper Kaguya they cut through nothing but air. It retained no damage as the gaps made by his continued attacks quickly patched up. His power was not one to be mocked or humiliated in such a way. Growing more annoyed than enraged he raised both of the blades toward the sky, only to bring them crashing down again ferociously. The strike fell just short of hitting the final Akatsuki member's creation, though that was Madara's true plan. The giant blue infernos continued downward to hit Konan herself. The force behind the attack lodged the weapons into the Earth and covered the surrounding area in rubble, smoke and dust.

Madara's Susano'o remained perfectly still until the debris had cleared to a point of sufficient visibility. He continued pressing the swords down into the Earth regardless as the faux angel's chakra had not been snuffed out. He was met by some unexpected resistance as he noticed, underneath the blades, Konan had covered herself with her wings of paper and had actually managed to block his attack. How enough power coursed through those wings to withstand such a strike shocked the Uchiha. As she spread her wings it forced the blades away and sent a shockwave that succeeded in erasing the debris and staggering his Susano'o.

Gritting his teeth, Madara extinguished his Susano'o and retreated back. There was no point in pursuing that type of attack. It was clear that Konan's power was extraordinary and perhaps, just maybe, truly was the power of Kaguya. While his Rinnegan's Justu Absorption technique had proven ineffective when attempting to nullify the chakra in Konan's paper he thought to try something similar. Regardless of its effect, he deemed it a worthy attack capable of countering her Paper Goddess. Forming the hand seal of confrontation he yelled;

"Wood style: Wood dragon jutsu!"

Slamming the palms of his hands against the ground caused a forest of wooden tendrils to sprawl upward from the earth. As they entwined and joined they created the slender body of the multi-headed Wood Dragon. He grunted while straightening up as the dragon charged forward toward Konan. It slithered and writhed across the scarred land before rearing all but one of its heads up to face the colossal figure. That head crashed down at where Konan stood resulting in an explosion of paper. It then went and joined its counterparts and wrapped around her technique. Again the image of Kaguya did not move in the slightest. The dragon was already wrapped tightly around the giant, and began to constrict further as Madara clenched his fists. He detected no difference in Konan's chakra, despite the unique characteristics of the wood style.

However under the immense pressure presented by the crushing force of Madara's wooden dragon technique, Konan's Paper Goddess crumbled. The scraps of paper that once held together a mighty representation of Kaguya began to dislodge from the body and fall slowly through the air. Within mere seconds the entire structure had been reduced to its original state, and the dragon awaited its next order, or target. Madara had learned by now not to accept this as a victory, and that the devilish angel surely had another trick up her sleeve.

He was hardly surprised when he heard rustling behind him. He lazily checked to find Konan emerging from the centre of where nearby paper flown to. He had not even noticed the amount of paper around him, as the battlefield was littered in the stuff. It presented no worry to him though. The only thing was her persistence was beginning to get on his nerves. The girl floated in the air, her form left deliberately incomplete as the start of her arms ended in loose parts of paper, and neither her legs nor the bottom of her cloak had been made. He turned to meet her gaze, his eyes shone with contained rage while her own were cold.

One of Konan's arms materialised, ending in an open hand held out to her foe. "I will not allow you to blanket this world in darkness and blot out the light of its future! Stop now Madara, before it is too late."

"I am too close…" His voice began quiet, but picked up rapidly as his anger got out of hand. "I am too close. I am too close! Look at the power I have obtained! Soon it shall all be in my hand. The world, everyone and everything in it, will be mine! All that stands before me is one insignificant weed that refuses to die!"

His dragon made for the two under his unspoken command. He would finish the angel this time. Though within him, the legendary Uchiha could not shake off a sense of dread, as if something were off. The unfinished Konan kept her place in the air, showing no signs of moving as before. Looking into her blank eyes gave Madara no clues, only a feeling of sadness. The dragon was upon them and he was now filled with dread, like it was actually unresponsive to his will, or worse, moving against it. At the last moment he glanced back only to see the open maw and fangs of his wooden dragon closing in on him. His eyes widened due to an emotion he had almost forgotten, fear. It was the same grand dragon, though with one unavoidable difference: its surface was white, covered in paper.


	4. Prison

White. Everything was white. All around him Madara was surrounded by a sea of shapeless white. He could spot countless tiny shards of paper swirling in what appeared to be a sphere around him. Glancing down he realised that he was floating in the centre of it all. No amount of movement brought him any closer to the edges and it even almost felt as if it were moving according to him, to keep him within the confines of his maddening prison of white. In order to test the nature of his cage and determine his next move, the great Uchiha decided to use the greatest fire technique in his arsenal.

"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"

Spewing a great inferno from his mouth he directed it outwards. The fire hit the edge but bounced back, quickly engulfing the entirety of the space contained inside the sphere. Madara was able to form the ribcage of Susano'o in enough time to act as a shield against his backfired technique, though he fully anticipated this outcome and had assumed it was the most likely. The partial Susano'o faded with the flames as the white of the paper shone around him once more. Deciding to finally make full use of his abilities he hurled his Truth-Seeking Balls all around him. To his shock he could not determine what happened. The balls definitely made contact with the shell he was imprisoned within, though no visible damage could be seen through the wall of infinite paper. They could nullify any ninjutsu and destroy all matter itself but it couldn't break through Konan's technique. He sighed, crossing his arms in a mixture of boredom and disgust.

"So now you have me trapped, kudos. Do you intend to hold me here until I rot and wither away from existence? I am Madara Uchiha. Do you actually know what that means you insolent worm? I am the man, no, the god who achieved the ultimate prowess of the Uchiha and claimed his rival's greatest powers as his own! With the Uchiha and Senju powers combined I was the first since the Sage of Six Paths himself to awaken the Rinnegan! And now… now…" A burst of maniacal laughter erupted from Madara as his voice grew louder, stronger, and more deranged. "… I have even exceeded him. I harness the monstrous power of all the tailed beasts and soon the entire world shall fall prey to that power. To the Eternal Tsukuyomi! How you managed to return from the dead intrigues me, but you shall become nothing like the rest of the world. So tell me Konan, just what do you intend to do?"

The paper that moved around the prisoner made no sound. He could feel the pounding of his heart in excitement. His breaths grew short and ragged. The paper sphere twisted and contorted until he could no longer tell its shape. Unbeknownst to Madara, he found himself standing upon what began as white before filling with vibrant colour. All shades of brown, grey and green spread around him forming ground, decorated with flowers, rocks, and trees that pieced together in moments. The natural colours were halted by the spreading of hues of light blue. He noticed it became a river to split what was now a rather large forest in two. The land around him felt real and gave no giveaway signs that it was created from paper. He watched as the mass of paper above him turned into a gentle blue sky dotted with white fluffy cloud from the edges at the tips of the trees, until there was no more paper visible. He was within what could fully be believed as the real world had he not witnessed its creation.

When Madara's eyes drifted back down he noticed Konan stood on the other side of the river. She still wore the robes of the Akatsuki as a tribute to the deceased. Her grey eyes filled with anguish shone white once more as she held out her arms. With her palms open and pointed downwards paper spawned from the long sleeves of her robe. It spun before her and created two vortexes underneath each hand. As she lowered her arms, the twin spirals rotated faster and grew in size until they were of an equal height to their caster. Paper began to clump together and take an unmistakeably humanoid shape. The natural colours of the forest contrasted with the deep blue and black conjured that belonged to the thing to the left of Konan. The one her right followed a more natural colour scheme that blended with the forest. They looked so real, as real as the world that surrounded them, but Madara knew they were a cruel trick of paper. It was not enough to shake his mind though.

"Izuna… Hashirama…"


	5. The Future

The world and beings that spawned from paper before the very eyes of Madara Uchiha looked as real as anything he had known outside this peculiar paper tomb. It was definitely no genjustsu. After all he had witnessed her signature paper ninjutsu give shape to all around him. As if she could trap someone so superior in an illusion as well. Yet it still seemed all too authentic to be part of that technique. A breeze shot through the forest, rustling trees, causing leaves to fall and dance through the air. The wind was a warm, familiar touch upon his skin. A startled deer downwind raised its head at the smell to examine the Uchiha. He could feel its eyes lingering upon him as a living one's might. Cautiously it continued feasting at the roots of a large tree. Small fish darted about in the stream, held captive by the current. He smirked at the realisation that he who stood on a pedestal equal to gods, had somehow become one such pitiful creature caught in the machinations of a dead girl.

The thing that took Izuna's form never let his eyes drop from Madara, while the Hashirama imitator gazed about. Konan's eyes stayed the pure white they had transformed into once more, and remained fixed upon her foe as he took a short step toward the river. Within a few more steps he was running atop the river's surface, which required focused chakra to the feet adding to the legitimacy of the happenings around him. He leapt before reaching halfway across the body of water, straight toward his brother carved from paper. Reshaping his truth-seeking balls into a lance he impaled the other Uchiha through the neck. Izuna was forced back and pinned against a tree with Madara driving the lance further through him, before two spears extended from the lance, in the direction of the other paper abomination and the witch who fashioned them.

"Madara… it's good to see you agai…" Izuna's sentence was interrupted by a fit of coughing up blood leading him to cover his mouth abruptly with one hand, while the other extended toward his brother, who stood just out of arm's length. Madara's eyes widened as he retracted the spears first, then the lance as well. Blood. And that voice. His voice. How long had it been since he had last heard his dead brother's voice? Without the lance holding him up, Izuna was dropped to the floor as blood poured out his neck. Madara caught him before he hit the ground for reasons completely unbeknownst to him. His mind screamed that this couldn't be possible, but his body moved to support his younger sibling. It was just pure instinct. And his eyes. They were undoubtedly his little brother's eyes. It was him. It had to be him. It couldn't not be him.

His momentary delusion of reunion was cast aside when he grasped the truth of the events unfurling in his arms. He would be forced to endure his last remaining sibling's death again. This time it was by his own hands. He let go of his brother's dying body and stood to face the paper puppeteer again.

"Heal him…" His eyes burned into Konan. "…Heal him now…." His fists began to clench. "… I said, heal him now!" He lunged for the girl's neck but was restrained by tendrils of wood from Hashirama's use of the wood style jutsu. He turned to glare at his reborn rival, only to notice that paper began to shed off of him. It spread down the wood and through the ground around him, consuming more in its decomposition. He reared his head back to the mother of this world to find her eyes shining a magnificent white as she too disappeared into paper. The entire world around him began shedding paper and becoming nothing, just as the meteor did, and he was abandoned in the centre of it all.

This time, he was not left in a world of maddening whiteness for long. The paper whirled around him, taking shape, and gaining colour much faster than before. He watched as his own home and full family, complete with a younger version of himself, enjoyed a meal around a table listening to him talk. The scene did not last however as each figure subtly transformed into two, then ten, then a hundred, and the background became a stage. Upon said stage stood a copy of himself in his prime beside Hashirama, the two shaking hands. He recognised the brokering of peace between the Senju and the Uchiha well, though with great disgust. In only a few moments, the same Madara peered out across the Land of Fire atop a cliff with Hashirama as they discussed their views for the future. The godly Madara grew sick of looking at his past as he turned away to find unknown visions flash before him at a considerably quicker rate. He caught glimpses of himself, of the Uchiha clan, of Hashirama, of the Senju clan, of Konoha, and an infinite other sights, but most of all, he saw unity, success, and happiness. The world faded to white once more as an angel draped in black and red, with eyes and wings of the purest white floated before him.

"Don't you see Madara? This is how the world could have been, how it should have been! You have always held the power to change the world. Yet it was never enough. Your greed and ambition knows no bounds and you've become corrupted by that power. Now you stand before the precipice of the worst catastrophe this world could ever know. Believe me, I have known such power and such a mistake. And so, it is my duty, my final task, my… redemption… to stop this before it's too late!"

As though her words were a command, the paper that surrounded them returned to its master, vanishing into her cloak, skin, and wings as the original battleground materialised once again. This time though it was empty, except for the empowered Naruto and Sasuke, the reanimated Hashirama, and Obito, who barely clung to life earlier, stood behind the angel in perfect health. The last of the paper detached from their bodies and joined Konan's wings.

"Ehhhhh?! I didn't know you could heal people with that stuff!" exclaimed Naruto in shock.

"You should probably be more thankful Naruto. She's the sole reason we're all still standing" Sasuke could sense the sheer immensity of her power, yet detected no malice in it.

"Your power is unlike any I have seen or felt before!" The First Hokage seemed just as shocked as Naruto.

"Konan…" Obito lowered his head in shame.

"What the hell are you?!" screamed Madara. Finally he felt his blood rush and his body tremble for reasons other than excitement since his rebirth. This was fear.


	6. A Calling

Madara Uchiha could not only sense the power of the once dead Konan through his Rinnegan and Sage Mode, but he could feel it too. The immensity of it made the air feel thick and heavy, chilling him to the bone. Background noise was drowned out in this odd presence. Though he was completely aware of it, he could not begin to fully comprehend it, much less estimate the true limit of its capacity. This power could change the world. This power is what he wanted. This power was rightfully his, or at least so his mind bade him. Beneath the seas of envy, buried in a nest of dread, was a vision of his second death. He had died once already. That was one too many times.

The angel spread her wings and lifted from the ground to hover above those she spared from the clutches of death as they all readied themselves for combat.

"No matter how many times you drag them off the ground they are still nothing but worms before me!" He bent his knees and extended a fist out toward the she-devil. "I shall reduce all of you to dust if that is what it takes."

There was no way he'd allow them to claim the first move. He fashioned his Truth-Seeking Balls into spears and sent them flying at the witch. Naruto immediately leapt to shield her like the rash fool he was. Having predicted this Madara wasted no time and sent them downward, toward his old rival and the younger Uchiha. The First Hokage jumped clear of the impact zone, retaliating by unleashing tendrils of wood from his arm. Yet Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. Before another thought could cross Madara's mind he was staring into the purple hue of the boy's unnatural Rinnegan, which shared the tomoe of a Sharingan.

"Chidori!"

A small sidestep was all that Madara could manage in the short space and time, serving to successfully mitigate the damage sustained from his signature lighting ninjutsu by diverting it to non-vital points. He had little time to rest as Sasuke was already pressing forward. His black spears returned to their spherical forms and sped back towards Madara like boomerangs. The corner of Sasuke's mouth curled upwards as he vanished from sight again, completely dodging his counter. The tendrils from Hashirama, each splitting off to form new branches, were lumbering toward him from where the Uchiha had once been. A flash of yellowy-orange in the sky above him soon shone a bright white blue as Naruto threw his Six Paths enhanced Rasen-Shuriken. Sensing the strike a moment before, Madara turned his body to the side to catch the incoming stab in the rear from Sasuke. Madara was alarmed. The attack itself was a little too early to stall him until the impact of his allies' jutsus, or to connect with them. However perhaps a limit existed for how often he could use his pesky teleportation powers and he was forced to attack now. Or perhaps he had another plan. It was apparently the latter as Sasuke channelled lightning up the blade, to which the older Uchiha launched a swift thrust kick to his abdomen. The kick was enough to put distance between the pair as the other attacks closed in. Madara raised four arches from the ground comprised of all five nature combinations, and began to rotate them around himself rapidly, effectively hampering the wooden monstrosity that had surrounded him, negating the descending ninjutsu as well, and holding his fellow Uchiha back. Protected from the outside by his dome, his gaze descended at the sound of rustling beneath him, only to find that the ground was breaking apart into rectangles and turning white. Becoming the centre of the dome he leapt upwards, turning his shield into a sphere to encapsulate him. Before it closed he witnessed a barrage of paper flying at him. It was halted by his defence, which stunned Madara. His truth seeking balls had no effect against the paper prison he was held within, yet now he could counter them? He based this on her powers being used to bring ninjas back from the brink of death.

His sphere returned to balls behind his back and his three attackers returned to Konan's side. Madara came to realise that Obito was yet to make a move. He did not join the others in the previous attack, instead his old pawn's eyes darted between the battlefield and the ground as he hesitated beside Konan. This suggested that she was not actually directly controlling each of them. While it rendered them less coordinated than if she was using the Edo Tensei jutsu, it hinted at something far worse. Controlling the dead was conceivable, but to fully resurrect them by some unknown power was something entirely out of that league. Before him stood an entity of another dimension. This power belonged to no human. This power verged on the realm of godhood. The resounding fear was reinforced as it came to Madara's attention that more of those he had struck down were forming behind her. The pink haired girl who was the third member of Naruto and Sasuke's team, the strange geezer who opened the eighth gate, and the Five Kage were all amongst this growing legion. Paper covered their bodies to heal them, then peeled off and multiplied before attaching to another host and repeating the process. Had her power no conceivable end?! In frustration he called down meteors in succession, not even bothering to scatter his clones in limbo to preserve himself, almost as though he was already aware what the ensuing outcome was.

"You know that won't work Madara." Konan rose higher in the air. "This is too far beyond you now." She lifted her hands slowly in outstretched arcs until they were parallel to her wings. "Just stop before it's all too late!" The plummeting rocks the size of mountains that brought forth the doom for the allied Shinobi forces turned to paper in the blink of an eye. The lone Uchiha had half expected the transition to spread slowly like the last time. He was not prepared and didn't imagine that something of such a magnitude could be instantaneous. The white engulfed the last of the night's black, until it had flooded the sky. It descended like a snowstorm yet had the grace and beauty of falling cherry blossoms. A true marvel to behold.

_You cannot defeat me._

Madara froze. The voice did not belong to Konan. It was someone, something, else.

_In your current state you have no hope._

It was a strange sensation. He wasn't hearing it from somewhere around him.

_You need me._

It was within him. Whatever spoke to him came from within his own body and mind.

_Come to me and stand rival to gods._

He was compelled to turn and walk toward the God Tree. As the paper danced all around him in the air he took steps toward it against his will. Despite being under Kabuto's control when reanimated, the restraints the snake boy had attempted to place upon him were little more than castles of sand to be crushed by his will. This compulsion took over his very body and mind. He watched from inside as his feet took each step toward what drew him. Like a puppet pulled by strings he reached out his hand, and like a puppet he fought against it with all his might, but his efforts were to no avail. He'd have laughed if only he had control of his face. Perhaps this is what the bitch was saying. Perhaps he was meddling with powers far beyond himself. Perhaps it was too late…

Madara did not even feel pain as a torrent of paper severed his outstretched arm at the elbow. As it turned for another strike, more gathered before diving for his legs. His body was pulled away without a moment to spare. All paper within the vicinity swirled and gathered in front of him, taking the image of Konan to face him. Her transformed white eyes seemed to be revealing specks of the original amber hue they once held. Her voice let slip more emotion as her great wings began to form;

"I will not let you take him!"


End file.
